Escaping Angle Brackets in Learn Markdown records a distinct Microsoft Learn authoring convention and keeps it scoped to that documentation environment rather than presenting it as a universal writing rule.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionWriting & Style
Quick answer
When literal angle brackets appear in ordinary Microsoft Learn Markdown text, encode or escape them so the renderer does not interpret the text as an HTML tag; inline code and code blocks do not need that treatment.
Key details
Core Issueliteral angle brackets
RegisterMicrosoft Learn technical documentation
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
This is a Markdown parsing issue for literal text. Real HTML tags and angle brackets inside code have different treatment.
Further guidance
Content
When literal angle brackets appear in ordinary Microsoft Learn Markdown text, encode or escape them so the renderer does not interpret the text as an HTML tag; inline code and code blocks do not need that treatment.
Purpose
Keep Microsoft Learn source readable, accessible, reusable, and predictable while following current contributor-platform conventions.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
Markdown reference for Microsoft Learn — Contributor guide↗ (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Current Microsoft Learn contributor reference for Markdown authoring, including headings/navigation, conceptual images and icons, includes, lists/checklists, nonlocalized strings, alerts, comments, tables, and other Learn extensions.
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